City Government
Poop Problems On Public Paths
November 3, 2006 
Next time the North End Greenies want $10 million to “save the foothills” take note of the prolific piles of poop present on the pedestrian paths.
In England the GUARDIAN took note of a polite sign which converts to about $40. Those Brits sure know how to use the language.
In a lead front page story in the Daily Paper, Ridge to Rivers program coordinator David Gordon estimates that canine hiking mates leave 350 pounds of poo per week, or 50 lbs a day on the trails. This raises havoc with waffle stomper soles on hiking boots.
Gordon didn’t explain how he arrived at his weight estimate. Curious if he weighed a sample and multiplied after a careful count or did a bulk sampling. We won’t challenge his figures or even his sampling method–better him than us.
Times are a changin’ . We agree that dog owners–the PC term used in the Daily paper was “guardians”–should promptly pick up pet poop plopped on the path.
However, they can take solace that dogs tend to concentrate their efforts more than sheep, rabbits, and deer.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 3, 2006, 9:19 am
50lbs a day couldn’t possibly compare to tons of the “bull” variety left in City, County and State halls and local airwaves around the valley! Especially this time of year!
Nov 3, 2006, 12:52 pm
Typical of the Statesman – the headline was accompanied by a photo of a woman and her dog. The woman said she didn’t see any problem with excessive dog poop. Or did I misread?
Nov 3, 2006, 6:37 pm
Front page lead story !! Use that local daily paper to clean up the poop, it doesn`t have much worth reading in it anyway..
Nov 3, 2006, 9:48 pm
Some of the poop is from wild dogs. They do so on the trail to mark their space. One can tell the differance between the wild vs. domestic, but I’ll will spare you further detail. That being said…..most dogs do their thing a short ways from the parking lot…..
Oh well, few stop at stop signs either.
Nov 5, 2006, 10:56 pm
I said – what about those dogs who do their thing on my front yard?
I do not see folks picking that up either…well, I end up doing that chore as I dislike picking it up on my shoe even more!!!!
Really, I witnessed a lovely woman walking her dog, allowing it to “do” in my yard. After the dog did it’s duty but before taking off, the woman happened to see me standing in the window looking out. Only at that moment did she start digging in her bag for her plastic pick’em up bag.
EDITOR NOTE–Do you have any weight estimates?
Nov 7, 2006, 2:41 pm
Weight estimate…just a WAG…
Maybe 1% of animals gross weight per day (10 pound animal = 0.1 pound per day, 100 pound animal = 1.0 pound per day).
That is just an estimate for small domesticated animals that I have owned (I have never weighed anything coming out or on the ground).
Any better guesstimates?
Nov 11, 2006, 7:32 am
Weighing poop is not bad. The sign inside the vault restroom says ‘Please do not throw trash in the toilet. It is very difficult to remove’. How’d you like THAT job?